Avatar: The Last Airbender: Book 4: Aether
by Black Hole Son
Summary: Two years have passed since Phoenix King "of Getting His Butt Whipped" Ozai was defeated, and Zuko and Mai are getting married. But, when a demon clad in shadows attempts to kill the young couple, the lost element called aether is reborn. Now, to stop the evil shadowbenders and novabenders, Aang and friends will have to look at the roots of the avatar.


Disclaimer: I _**DO NOT**_own the television series Avatar: The Last Airbender by Nickelodeon or am in any way associated with them or their affiliates.

Author's Note: So just finished going and watching all three books to Avatar and figured, "Hey, why not write a Fic?" So, here it is. I'm going to warn you in advance, I haven't seen any of The Legend of Korra, so some of this may not be accurate to the series. Even if I did base it off the history in TLoK, it wouldn't matter, since I will be introducing three, potentially even more, new characters. They actually are revealed towards the end of this chapter. Oh, and I added a new element: aether. If you don't know what aether is, it'll be explained in the next chapter. So, enjoy this story.

**Chapter 1: The Assassin**

The scarred lord waited at an alter woven with tiger lilies. A sage stood before him with his hands clasped together at his waste. Firelord Zuko couldn't quiet his nerves, standing there. He felt like he'd been drenched by the Unagi, and his crown felt heavier than it was supposed to be, and the sage looked menacing despite his kind old face.

He looked out the corner of his eye, seeing his best man, Aang, standing just a few steps away from him. The two had been through a lot together. They met with Zuko trying to kill him. Now he was his firebending teacher.

The young monk looked to the side quickly.

"Zuko, she's coming," Aang whispered to him, and he regained focus.

Zuko felt his lover walk up next to him more than saw her; a trick he picked up from Toph. Unlike the blind earthbender girl, he couldn't entirely tell what she looked like. He hadn't been allowed to see the woman beside him in her gown until the wedding, and he was itching to see her in it.

The sage signaled for them to turn to face each other. Zuko complied, feeling as though time had stopped as he turned just to torment him. When he finally made it to face the raven-haired woman next to him, time stopped once more, this time so he could relish the moment.

It was Mai, the monotone ex-friend of his sister Azula. She wore a red dress which waved around in the wind like a roiling flame, and it was black around the edges, almost as if charred by the flames. She wore a veil which was weighed down by tiny tiger lilies, blurring out most of her facial features. But, Zuko could just make out a smile, a rarity from his wife-to-be.

The sage went through the vows with them before requesting the rings. A young boy who was friends with Aang called The Duke walked up to the three, offering a red pillow with two rings resting on top of it. Zuko took Mai's, golden with a red diamond, and she picked up his, platinum. They put each others' rings on for each other.

"You may kiss the bride," the sage told Zuko.

The young man took a deep breath, trying to calm his shaking hands. He lightly gripped the bottom of his wife's veil, tossing it up and over her head, revealing that she was smiling wider than he'd ever seen.

They leaned into each other, their lips locking together. Zuko relished the moment, enjoying the cherry taste of Mai's lips, almost losing himself before they pulled apart. Everyone watching, old friends and allies and hundreds of Fire Nation citizens he'd never met before having attended the wedding. He noticed a man at the back of the rows being escorted away in chains by guards. So his father had attended the wedding.

Zuko felt a sudden weight on his side as Aang did an airbending leap onto his shoulder, trusting both of their weight to his legs.

"Way to go, buddy!" he said excitedly. Despite now being 15, he was always somewhat childish. "I can tell you two are going to be great together."

"Mmhmm, yeah, totally!" Ty Lee, Mai's best friend, said with a cheeriness that never left her voice. "You two will be happy until the end. I can tell. Look at how cute you two are!"

"Ty Lee, you should stick to the tight rope," Mai said. "Leave the fortune telling to the others in your circus." She smiled at her new husband. "But, yes, I think we'll be very happy together."

"Guys, can we go to the wedding hall now?" Aang whined. "I don't know about you two, but I'm hungry. We got egg custard pies, right?"

The group of friends laughed as the newlyweds headed for the hall to eat and receive wedding gifts.

SFJSTLWH

The party was long over, dawn less than an hour away, and Mai and Zuko walked in the courtyard of the palace. Mai held her husband's arm to her chest, and their heads were stacked together.

"Do you ever get that feeling," Zuko said, "of…like…what now?"

"What do you mean?" Mai asked, drowsy and ready for them to bed, the Fire Lord's chambers being where they were headed.

Zuko stopped. "I don't know. It's just kind of like missing the old times, I guess. And wondering what the future holds."

"Are you saying you miss chucking fireballs at the avatar and redirecting Azula's lightning?"

"No, not like that." He looked skywards. "It's hard to explain."

"Basically, you're afraid that, after all this action, that you'll be bored."

"I rule the Fire Nation now. I won't have the chance to be bored. And if I ever do, I have you to keep me bored and happy."

"That's sweet," Mai said. She looked around. "Weren't there guards here a moment ago?"

Zuko looked around, realizing their escort was missing. They may have figured they'd be okay on their own, the Fire Lord known to be a natural at firebending and his wife good with knives. But they'd never leave them like that. There was a sinister chill to the air Zuko hadn't noticed before.

"Mai, stay behind me," Zuko commanded, readying a fireball so he could see into the darkness.

He swept his arm around peering into every shadow until he found a patch of darkness his flame couldn't penetrate. He sent the fireball towards the shadow, and it almost seemed as though the darkness had reached out and grabbed the flame, snuffing it out and leaving them in perpetual darkness.

Zuko quickly lit another orb of fire, but the shadow was now only yards away. He squeezed the fireball in his fist, creating a blazing dagger.

"What are you?" he demanded. "Are you some spirit?"

The shadow said nothing. Instead, it seemed to collapse in on itself, squeezing itself until it was smaller and smaller. Soon, it was shaped like a human with no definite features, just a shadow of a man. A face formed on its head, strange and demonic, the fangs reminding Zuko of his mask from his days as the Blue Spirit.

"Mai," the Fire Lord said with fatal calm, "run. Find the guards."

"I'm not leaving you Zuko. Not alone."

"I'm not alone." He formed a second dagger. "I have my fire. Now go get some help!"

Mai looked between the shadow demon and her husband, reluctantly running to find the guards to help with the monster.

"Alright, just you and me," Zuko said to the shade. "Want to dance?"

The beast growled at him. It swiped a hand through the air, pulling a sword made of darkness from nothing.

"That all you got?" Zuko taunted it.

The creature held its free hand next to the blade and it warped before a matching sword appeared in its other hand. The Fire Lord decided to hold his tongue this time, raising his blazing knives in preparation for a fight.

Zuko made the first attack, shouting as he made an upward slash, and the demon sidestepped the attack with ease. Zuko proceeded with an onslaught of blazing slashes, each one dodged efficiently by the shadow. He finalized his assault with a kick to the creature's chest coated in fire. It discarded a sword, which levitated next to it and caught his foot. It spun his leg around, snapping something and causing Zuko to collapse, crying out in pain.

It loomed over the fallen lord, opening its mouth to reveal its fangs. It leaned closer and closer until it was inches away from Zuko's face, growling with anticipation to finish the firebender off.

"Hey ugly," a deep man's voice called out, earning the shadow's attention. "Why don't you pick on someone of your own caliber?"

A great giant of a man leapt from the sky, landing heavily on the ground but still maintaining a powerful stance. Another, younger man also shifted from the shadows, taking a proud position next to the hulk which made him appear unbelievable tiny.

The creature moved away from Zuko, snatching its blade from the air, taking a lose position before the twosome.

"That's not etheryone," an odd voice said.

Another man moved from the shadows, though he seemed more to be coming from oblivion than a hiding place like the little man. He was smaller than the behemoth as well, but he still seemed plenty intimidating, wearing a mask of some raptor which had no apparent eyeholes.

The creature flinched but held its ground. The big man advanced on the creature, cracking his knuckles, but the masked man stopped him.

"This one's nine, War Hog," he hissed, drawing a blade with a hilt that was too long. Another edge shot out from the bottom of the hilt, and he broke the two swords apart, another blade shooting out from the hilt of both swords. The shadow looked less certain of itself.

The masked man charged the shadow at an unbelievable speed, twirling his odd spears rapidly. The creature barely managed to raise its blades against the assault, but the dark sabers were dissipated into nothingness after the first strike they suffered. After that, the living shadow stood no chance as the masked stranger began to hack the shadow to pieces, liquid darkness flinging into the air before dispersing like the swords in the coming dawn.

After several minutes of hacking and slashing, an ordinary man fell to the ground, his chest painfully heaving with exhaustion. The masked man brought his blades at either side of the man's throat before making a rigid scissor cut. The secondary blades on his sword retracted back into their original blade before he stuck the hilts of his remaining swords together, one of the blades retracting before he sheathed the blade.

"Fire Lord Zuko, are you alright?" Zuko heard a man call out to him.

He faced the source of the sound, finding a troop of guards rushing towards him.

"I'm fine," he called back, "but I think my leg is broken."

The men reached their lord, many of them forming a protective wall with their bodies, spears pointed at the three strangers.

"Wait," Zuko said, "these men saved my life. It was the one on the ground who attacked me."

One of the guards looked uncertainly at the trio. "Are you certain, milord?"

Zuko looked over the shoulders of his men, being supported by a firebender.

"No, I am not. They saved me, but I still don't know who they are or why. Keep them under a heavy guard so I may talk with them. And watch out for the masked one. He's a capable swordsman."

"Of course milord," the guard said.

"You heard him, men," the captain, who supported Zuko, said. "Take them inside, but watch them carefully."

He continued issuing orders, but Zuko faded off.

**End Chapter**

Author's Note: Hmm, I'm debating as to tell you guys the names of the three new mystery guests... Eh, you'll find out in the next chapter. I will tell you though that they are protagonists. So, until next time. (I have nothing to do today, so next time might be in like fifteen minutes. Or, who knows, next time might not be for several weeks.) Okay, once more, 'til next time.

PS: I have not forsaken you, fans of Frost Emblem. But, I'm having some difficulty getting my next chapter uploaded. But I swear I'm trying. Okay, for real this time, later.


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